Legal Research

"10 Legal Writing Tips From Bryan Garner"

This post was written by Leora Maccabee: "I first heard of Bryan Garner while clerking for the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota. I was having a difficult time crafting an appellate brief on some case involving criminal fraud. My supervisor looked at me, pointed to his bookshelf and said, "Grab the red one." He was pointing to Bryan Garner's The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style. As the saying goes, I would never be the same.

There's little doubt that the man is a legal writing genius. Editor of Black's Law Dictionary. Prolific writer of almost every book on legal style written in the last ten years (or at least the good ones), he now spends his time writing, interviewing judges about writing, and teaching lawyers how to write. I was lucky enough to join him for the latter on Tuesday for six hours as he schooled 40 Minneapolis lawyers in the fine points of "Advanced Legal Writing & Editing."

I highly recommend taking Garner's CLE yourself, or reading one of his numerous books on legal writing, but if you're pressed for time, or want a few tips to tide you over until Garner next comes to your city with his LawProse CLE seminars, here are my top ten (paraphrased) takeaways from Garner's "Advanced Legal Writing & Editing." Agree? Disagree? Add your thoughts in the comments..."

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Source: Lawyerist.com, 23 April 2010. © 2007-2010 Lawyerist Media, LLC. Reproduced with permission of the site editor, Sam Glover.

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on May 03, 2010 (boomark / email).